Candidate for
Council Member; City of Anaheim

Duane Roberts was born in Burbank, California in 1967. Not long after his birth, his parents relocated to Orange County for economic reasons in 1968, first living in Fullerton. They soon crossed into Anaheim and moved to Anna Drive. Shortly thereafter, they took up permanent residence in a working-class neighborhood in West Anaheim.

As a child, Roberts was mostly home-schooled, but would later attend a mix of private and public educational institutions, including the Amherst-Oakmont private school and Walt Disney, Clara Barton, and Loara Elementary schools. While still living in Anaheim, he attended Fullerton Union High School and graduated with a diploma in 1984.

He worked as a typesetter for several years before enrolling full-time at Fullerton College, later transferring to the University of California, Irvine. While at UCI, Roberts studied drug policy, police behavior, white collar and government crime, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminology, Law, and Society in 1997.

Soon after graduation, Roberts plunged into local affairs, first working side-by-side with community organizers in the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood of Anaheim helping tenants deal with issues ranging from police brutality and misconduct, poor housing conditions, and civil rights.

Over the years, Roberts extensive involvement in the community not only brought him into contact with police, politicians, and city bureaucrats, but it provided him with a rich, in-depth knowledge of everything from urban planning to campaign finance law.

He has repeatedly made use of the California Public Records Act, the state's freedom of information law, to force the City of Anaheim, local school districts, and other government agencies to release thousands of pages of documents on matters of public interest.

Between 2006 and 2008, he was co-owner and publisher of the Orange Coast Voice, a monthly community newspaper that circulated 15,000 copies in the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, and surrounding areas.

Roberts is currently attending classes through the UCI Extension program to earn a certificate that will enable him to teach English as a Second Language.

He has been a longtime member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim and has been elected to serve on its Board of Trustees three times.